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Risers And Fallers From Every Week 6 Matchup || Fantasy Football 2025
01:26:06
In Episode 274 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss every game from Week 6, talking about risers, fallers, and major takeaways. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE to...
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- [00:00]
A
Morning, Zoe. Got donuts. Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage? Well, I dig the mattress and I.
- [00:08]
B
Want to be in a T mobile.
- [00:09]
A
Commercial like you teach me. So Dana. Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful.
- [00:21]
B
Iphone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.
- [00:24]
A
Wow, impressive. Let me try.
- [00:26]
B
T mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network. Nice.
- [00:32]
A
Je free.
- [00:32]
B
You heard them. T mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.
- [00:40]
A
So what are we having for lunch? Dude, my work here is done. The 24 month bill credit on experience.
- [00:45]
B
Beyond for well qualified customers plus tax.
- [00:47]
A
And $35 device connection charge. Credit send and balance due. If you pay off earlier, Cancel Finance agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256 gigs 1099.99 A new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Oklahoma Speed Test Intelligence Data 182025 Visit T mobile.com so I'm, I'm not gonna lie. There's something that's been happening to me this, this weekend since I've been recovering from. From strep throat. But I took these antibiotics, amoxicillin. People who have taken antibiotics are pretty familiar with cured like everything. I no longer have stuffy nose. I no longer have like anything in my throat. Like you, you record all the time. I'm constantly having to cough or clear my throat. I'm hitting mute all the time. Like I always have some sort of water or tea with me. I did not know this is how people live. Like they just walk around being able to breathe perfectly fine. It's Dave, I'm. I don't think I'm exaggerating. It feels like sex. Like, it just feels like. It's like, it's like, I don't know, I don't take like drugs, but people who are on drugs and get euphoric feelings. Like this is what it must be like to just be able to breathe normal every day. It's phenomenal.
- [01:52]
B
Yeah, I want to say something, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna like indict my mom on like federal crimes. But she goes to Mexico often. You got like a timeshare there goes a handful of times a year and she always buys a bunch of antibiotics and brings them back with her because you don't need a doctor's prescription for them, like, twice a year. She'll just, like, take an antibiotic for a week and just, like, turns her into a superhuman. It's. It's a thing.
- [02:13]
A
It's incredible. Yeah, it is incredible. Absolutely incredible. And telehealth. What an amazing world we live in. Or I'm able to speak to a doctor in 15 minutes via webcam. And she goes like this. She says, can you open your mouth? Can you say ah into the camera? I do that. And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, I know. It's. It's pretty bad. Okay, I'm gonna prescribe you amoxicillin. And I was like, this was so simple. This is. There's plenty of complaints about the American medical system. But, like, this was the new.
- [02:44]
B
The new teledoc is a nice w. Pretty nice. Yeah. You pay, like, 75 bucks. Talk with the doctor for 30 minutes, 30 seconds, really, and just, like, get whatever you want. Yeah, it was.
- [02:53]
A
It was a clear dub for the American medical system. Congrats, guys. We got one. At least we got one. Welcome into the Football Guys Fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown, joined as always by Dave Kluge. We're jumping into the week six risers and fallers. We're recapping and giving you our reaction from everything, all the action in week six. This is new. This is going to be a new episode. We heard you guys, you wanted more of this show.
- [03:27]
B
We.
- [03:27]
A
We figured, let's do this. Let's give you guys content Monday through Thursday, as much information as we can. The way we want to do that is not just, like, go back and look at the games and recap what happened Thursday night through Sunday night, but we're going to give you a riser and fall from each of these games and talk about their performances and how you should handle that for fantasy football going forward. Now, before we do that, I also want to remind everybody, you got a bunch of ways that you can enjoy this show. First is right here on YouTube. So if you're watching this video, you're just enjoying what we're going to talk about here. Take a second to, like, this video comment down below. Who are the players that either won you your week, lost your week? If you're looking for fantasy advice, Monday through Thursday, we're going to be giving that to you. Okay, Monday, we got our risers and followers. Tuesday, waiver wire. Wednesday, trade targets. And then Thursdays, we're going to have a hecking chunker. It's Just a massive episode where we're going to be going through the tiers of positional rankings. That's going to be way over an hour. And Dave, I'm just excited, man. We've got a new. I don't want to say format, but, like, we got some new stuff coming in for the show. It's pretty cool. Yeah, the.
- [04:25]
B
The Start sits and sleepers episode, you know, it just didn't feel very actionable. Like, we talked about a handful of players and it helps six people. Yeah. Like, if I'm. If we're talking about players that aren't on your fantasy football episode, what's the point? So we want to try to make more. What's the word? I'm trying to think of just like all encompassing. Like, just, you know, I'm really very inclusive. Inclusive, yes.
- [04:44]
A
That very 20, 25 of you.
- [04:46]
B
Exactly. Yeah.
- [04:47]
A
I'm proud.
- [04:48]
B
Comprehensive is the word I was looking for comprehensive episodes where we're talking about as many players and games as and teams as we possibly can in one episode.
- [04:57]
A
So let's do this. We got a lot to go through here. Let's go all the way back. Let's rewind to Thursday Night Football. Giants Defeat the Eagles 3417 and what was just honestly a shocking victory for the Giants. Dave, let's. Let's do this. Let's each give our riser and then let's each give our faller. Why don't you kick us off with your riser from this game?
- [05:16]
B
Oh, I forgot to pull up the show sheet. I think we have the same one here. Right? I think. I think there's two main risers and I don't think you have one.
- [05:22]
A
You have Cam Scatterboo.
- [05:23]
B
Yes. Cam Scatter Boo. Absolutely a riser. And this is one where, like, I had thought the Tyrone Tracy was going to come back in and get some of the work here because, you know, he looked okay and he was starting to start the year. But I think this is just one of those situations. While he was gone. Cam Scatter Boo entrenched himself as the guy. So I wanted to see how this kind of workload would shake out. Tyrone Tracy coming back with fresh legs. It did not matter. It was the Camp Scatterboo show. I think that he is going to continue being that guy going forward.
- [05:49]
A
Yeah, I mean, Scatter Boo is obviously taking over that role in the backfield. My riser we mentioned, it's these two players for the Giants. It's Jackson, Darth, and as much as they are basically just like Two of the cast members from the Jackass series, like they're having fun and they're playing good football and they're winning games and like that's really all that matters. Like it's. They're a fun energy to be around. Jackson Dartman. Beating the super bowl champs is already a big thing, but doing it with 100 QB rating positive EPA, not taking sacks like, like a rookie Wood or Justin Fields and then not turning the ball over like, like to a tongue by Loa, like you're just doing a lot of things that rookies don't typically do and going out there and beating a good team. So for each of these guys to be playing at the level that they are, I think they're relevant for fantasy. Jackson Dart I think is just kind of one of those guys that you can keep around that quarterback 12 vicinity every single week as a guy you can start. I don't even know that he's a matchup guy anymore. I think the rushing upside 50 plus yards averaging right now is fantastic for fantasy. Like that's going to make him a starter every week.
- [06:53]
B
Yeah, it sounds crazy but in my rest of season rankings I moved him ahead of Jared Goff, Jordan Love. I mean that rushing is just a cheat code. Like you said, he's averaging 50, but he's also rushed 450 plus in each of his three games. He has averaged more fantasy point or he's scored more fantasy points. In each of his first three games he's given us a 20 plus point floor. Like it's just been unbelievable. 42 touchdown interception, radio ratio, two rushing touchdowns. On top of that, I've got him ranked as my QB12 rest of season, which means you're just kind of plugging them in and hoping for the best. Like there's no reason not to believe this because we've seen it for three weeks now. If the floor falls out from under us, we can kind of adjust from there. But for now I think you just got to keep riding him.
- [07:31]
A
Yeah, Dave, I think you and I both have the same fallers from. Faller, excuse me, from this game. Am I right? Saquon Barkley?
- [07:39]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I mean the opportunity has been there, but it's just this doesn't look like the Saquon Barkley of old. I pulled it yesterday because we were looking. We talked about this a little bit last week. Like the explosive plays just haven't really been there. And you know, 20 plus yards I think is like a good barometer for an explosive play. Last year saquon Barkley averaged 20 plus yards on a carry roughly once in every 22 carries this year. He's had 95 carries, hasn't broken a single one off for more than 20 yards yet. It's just weird. Like he, he looks like Saquon. We talked about this. We did the film review a few weeks back. Like, he still got the jump cuts and the explosiveness and all that sort of stuff. He's not actually playing back, getting past the second level.
- [08:18]
A
That's the thing is like, he's not playing bad, he's just not playing superhuman right now. Right. And it's kind of hard to do that. Like I was looking at it, dude, you get, you get 12 carries this week, six carries in the previous week. The Eagles have converted into this weird, like, non stop passing offense. Meanwhile, the vibes still suck around A.J. brown and Devonte Smith. Like, I, I don't understand the Eagles. It's crazy to be coming off of a Super bowl. You're, you're 40 at one point and the vibes just start to deteriorate like this. And I just, I, I don't know what the Eagles quite quite exactly are at this point.
- [08:48]
B
Yeah, and the vibes with A.J. brown are really weird. And especially week one, like we talk about it, there's always that like really heavy week one bias because it's like the first football that we get in nine months and then we kind of anchor takes to it for the rest of the year. And of course we saw that like one target game in week one. He is quietly averaging nine targets per game since then. Like from week two on, he's about to say nine targets per game. Like the volume has been there, but it's just like the, the throws are just like off. And like he doesn't look like he's got that special sauce that he used to. Like, you said, like, the usage is promising. Like Saquon looks like Saquon. The Eagles are still winning games, but the vibes are just terrible.
- [09:25]
A
You know what's funny is like Jalen hurts his whole stoicism. It's so cool when they're winning.
- [09:33]
B
Yeah.
- [09:33]
A
And it's so cool when they're losing. They come back and win. But then the stoicism when the team's not playing well, people hate it.
- [09:40]
B
Yeah.
- [09:41]
A
And it's the same way how like Mike McDaniel, his quirky little things when the Dolphins are winning. Ah, what a fun coach. We need more guys like this. And then they're losing. You're like Actually, you know, the pant legs being pulled up is kind of messed up. Like, we. We change our opinions based on winning and losing. It's. It's just. It's really funny. Same thing with Baker. Baker's the same dude. He was. Yeah.
- [10:00]
B
I love that, by the way. Yeah. He's like, I used to be immature and now I'm. I got moxie and I'm a dog. Yeah, it's the way the narratives change.
- [10:08]
A
Yeah. All you got to do is play, man. All right, let's go to the next game on here that we basically sent overseas to London to punish the Brits. Broncos defeat the Jets.
- [10:19]
B
Real quick. You know it's bad. Did you see Kurt Warner was tweeting at halftime about how bad the game was? I don't think I've ever seen a broadcaster, like, tweet about the game that he's broadcasting mid game, but it was that bad.
- [10:30]
A
It's. Dude, it was awful. It was absolutely awful. I had it on here at the house early, and you know, the kids here and my wife, they're all seeing it and they're like, oh, that's right, it's Sunday. You got football. It's really early. And I was like, yeah, you know, it's the London game. It's always early. And they're like, football's still pretty boring, eh? I'm like, actually, it's just these teams, like, I'm just. I'm just telling you, it's football. Yeah, man. So winner, risers and fallers from this game. I'm gonna go first because my risers, nobody. This was awful. I think everyone lost. America, England, the uk, the NFL, the jets, the Broncos. Everyone's a faller from this game. Everyone's a loser from this game. These teams were just an absolute punishment. Davis was kind of crazy. I don't know if you. If you saw. I put the meme in the. In the show sheet here. The final 3 minutes and 30 seconds of the first half, the offense for the jets only moved the ball 31 yards, 31 yards in three and a half minutes. And they gave up on the two minute drill and just decided to run the ball. And there was this funny meme going around of Garrett Wilson and Aaron Glenn there. And it's Garrett Wilson saying, coach, the clock is ticking. Let's throw the ball. And Aaron Glenn doing 3, 2, 1. Happy New Year, man. I love New York. It's just like there's. There's not a guy that is reading the room less right now than Aaron Glenn. You see the, the post game interview about Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor that he was asked.
- [11:54]
B
I didn't catch that. No.
- [11:56]
A
Oh my God. So he was asked if they would be potentially benching Justin Fields going forward after, I mean, pretty objectively bad performance. He looked at the. He interrupted the. The reporter and he's like, what kind of question is that? As if the reporter was the crazy one. And the reporter's like, no, it. Fields had a bad game. You don't think it would be better with Tyrod? And he's like, I'm not answering that next question. And just moved on.
- [12:23]
B
As many sacks as completed passes. Yeah. It was not the best. And I will say, like, it almost feels, I don't want to say predictable, but if you look at Justin Fields, like he's had five games that he has started now, and when he's faced bottom 10 offenses, he's given us 30 plus fantasy points. And then the two times that he's had to face good offenses, Buffalo and Denver, he's given us less than six points. So I almost wonder now if, like, it's just that simple with Justin Fields, like, if he's facing a bottom 10 defense, you put him in your lineup, but if he's not, you take him off. And I will get to test this method over the next couple of weeks because they get Carolina next week and they get Cincinnati the week after, which are both bottom 10 and EPA per play. So I want to see if there's just if this is a little bit coincidental or if there's something to this. But yeah, like, feast on bad defenses and can't do anything against the good ones.
- [13:10]
A
So, like, I'm. My question here then is like, I think when everyone is healthy and there's no bye weeks, I don't know that you're starting Justin Fields. Like, even if it's a decent matchup, you probably have a quarterback that you trust more. But with bye weeks, with injuries, with everything going on, there's gonna be people that still have to start them. And it's like, you still have two decent weeks coming up here. Like, you mentioned Panthers and Bengals. I. I know we kind of got off track into like the, the losers and the Justin Fields of it all. We can keep talking about that. Dave. Justin Fields didn't complete a pass beyond 10 yards in this game. He only attempted one pass beyond 10 yards. Like, the passing is just non existent. You already mentioned the nine completions and nine sacks. Fun stat here from Jeff Blaylock, football guy staffer. Justin Fields in his career has three games with the same or more number of sacks than completions. However, he only has two games with 300 or more passing yards. Yeah, that's like, it's not a Jets thing. It's not a recent thing, it's just a career thing. There's still people that are really defending Justin Fields. Like I saw, I saw a lot of the. Well, Baker turned it around. Sam Darnold turned it around. Is Justin Fields cooked? Chad, let us know. Dave, let us know.
- [14:17]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I do start wondering if they have to try something different with him. I'm hesitant to say this, but I remember when Terrell Pryor came into the league and struggled a little bit and then became a thousand yard receiver. Did you see the clips going around from a New York practice last week? Justin Fields?
- [14:32]
A
Yep, Yep. You're saying the thing.
- [14:35]
B
No, I mean, I, I don't know if he's still young, but at a certain point, like, you just gotta take a player for what he is and like, you know, sacks are not something that have ever really been nice to him. He always struggles with reading defenses and pocket presents and all that sort of stuff. And that's not something that you typically see a quarterback work out of his game in the middle of his career.
- [14:58]
A
Yeah, you, you really don't.
- [15:00]
B
Just for fun though, I just want to see like one team that they're just like, you know what you call the plays, you go out there, like, just do your thing. Like, I, I do want to see just like fully unleashed Justin, the little Giants out there. Seriously? Yeah, because like we saw last year, Tomlin trying to like turn him into a game manager and it seems like that's what Aaron Glenn like, the game plan yesterday was like, let's try to take the air out of the ball and keep it as safe as possible. And, and at that point, like, why even sign Justin Fields if that's how you're going to coach him? But you know, you let him run loose and those nine sacks might be 12 sacks and five fumbles. So you gotta do something here. But yeah, he's probably cooked.
- [15:35]
A
I can't wait. I can't wait to see they bench Justin Fields, trade Breeze hall for a draft pick. They start Khalil Herbert at running back, who's third on the depth chart right now. Then they'll finish six and 11, draft another offensive lineman and let's run it back. Let's run it back. Jets fam. All right, next game on here. Rams defeat the Ravens 17 to 3. Dave, who's your riser from this game?
- [15:57]
B
My riser from this one is devonte Adams. Just because we're probably going to be looking at some time without Pukinakua, which means more targets going to devonte Adams. But then I woke up this morning and I was thinking about it and I'm like, I don't even know if he really is a riser. I think that he benefits so much from the defensive treatment that Puka Nakua gets that he's getting like soft single man coverage. Like now. If teams start game planning to shut down a 33 devont. 33 year old Devonte Adams, can they do it? I'm not totally sure. I mean Matthew Stafford is great at turning these guys into wide receiver ones. We know devonte Adams still has the skill in him, but yeah, my, my gut reaction was that he's a riser. But the more I think about it, I think it's still pretty neutral for Devonte Adams. Actually.
- [16:37]
A
There's guys like devonte where I would ask myself, are they a riser or have they just like already been there and it's just more solidifying what, what they do and who they are and yeah, I think I'm with you on that. My riser here is Derrick Henry. I know we talked about it a little bit that like it just was, you know, worried that the, the Klein was coming, but he's not dead yet, man. And like even in a negative game script, we see 24 carries, 122 rushing yards against one of the league's best run defenses in the Los Angeles Rams. He had a stacked box on half of his rush attempts and still averaged over 5 yards per carry against the stacked box. It could have been a bigger fantasy day for him, Dave. Like he, the, the, the. The Ravens had a very questionable series where they get down first and goal at the four yard line. Derrick Henry gains three yards on a run up the middle, down to the one. They run two, not one, but two tush push plays with Mark Andrews under center, gain nothing. Then it's fourth down and one and they send Derrick Henry to the outside on a sweep. I, I don't know, I don't know what to do. Like this team needs Lamar Jackson back.
- [17:45]
B
Yeah. And like you said, I mean he saw a stack box a ton. Like they just play change the way that they play him. When Lamar Jackson isn't out there, when you've got the threat of Lamar Jackson and Eric Henry, it is scary for defenses to have to deal with. But when it's Cooper Rush out there. Like they're just going to load the box and that's why we saw like Cooper Rush. Yeah. And then the game and then you get Wario Lamar Jackson out there. Tyler Huntley who like can kind of do some of the things that Lamar Jackson can, but just like not nearly as good. But you know, I was hoping that would open things up. But at that point they, they were trailing by so much that Derek Henry kind of got phased out of the game plan and that's when we started seeing a lot of Justice Hill in there. So the opportunity was nice for Derrick Henry and had they just run the ball to him four times in a row instead of trying to work in two tush pushes to Mark Andrews there. You know, it would have been a much better fantasy day. But yeah, I'm interested to see what this team looks like when Lamar Jackson comes back. But at a certain point, like you know, they're, they're not going to call their season off and say like, you know, it's over for us, but their season is over at this point. Like I don't see any way that the Ravens are making the playoffs and it's going to be tough for them to justify like continuing to put all these guys out here on a week in and week out basis and play as hard as they can. And what is starting to really quickly look like a lost season.
- [18:56]
A
I. It's the AFC and the AFC sucks. Like I, I think it was last week. The Chiefs were also both tied for the wild card and the 10th overall pick in the draft. Like the AFC is just horrendous. So like I'm, I'm not going to count out the Ravens entirely from a wild card birth here. It's highly unlikely they go into the buy this week. They get Lamar Jackson back after the buy. Hopefully it looks like then they've got Chicago and Miami in back to back games. Like I think those are two games where you can see yourself at least for fantasy purposes, get right, get some production from each of these guys. Derek Henry in particular. Dave, let's go to the fallers from this game. I think we have the same one. It's Pukinakua and it's simply because of.
- [19:36]
B
Injury here weekend, which means you're probably not seeing Puka Nagua till week nine would be my guess. Like he's gonna miss next week. Then they get the bye week and then hopefully he comes back after that.
- [19:46]
A
Right. Like I would assume like that's, that's what they're gonna do. They're going to London. Like it's, it's a heavy travel week. You don't want a guy having to do that. I'd say Jordan Whittington becomes an interesting waiver wire guy to look at. We'll probably talk about him tomorrow on the waiver wire show. Let's go to the next game on here. Panthers defeat the Cowboys 30 to 27. And this was the Rico Dowdle game, man. Like he was, he was telling them, them boys better, better get their chin straps buckled up because I'm coming for them. And gosh, has. Have we never seen a player talk so much smack and then back it up in such an emphatic way? And, and to be a guy that like, was not the starter, not the big contract guy, he was for all intents and purposes, just a dude for the Panthers. And now all of a sudden, I mean, not that we haven't seen talent from Rico Dowdle, but this has been Insane. He's averaging 30 touches over the last two games for 237 rushing yards, or excuse me, 237 total yards per game over these last two games. Just taking over for Chuba Hubbard, he's posted a near 67 rushing success rate, highest by any player with at least 20 carries in a game this season. Dave, is the genie out of the bottle? Like, I don't. Everyone's asking this. Like, Chuba does not come back to being a starter, right?
- [21:03]
B
No, I mean, Chuba was very inefficient too. Like, I think he had a handful of receiving touchdowns that kind of masked how inefficient his season actually was. And now Rico Doddle comes in here and like just completely redefines what a revenge game is. Like, we love throwing the term revenge game around, but it's like, oh, this guy like played three games with this team 10 years ago and now he plays against him. It's a revenge game. But like, no, Rico Dowdle wanted to stay with the Cowboys, got cut, spent all week yapping about the Cowboys and then went out there and had the most scrimmage yards a player has ever had against his former team. Like, this is a revenge game. Like one. Like we might never see anything like this again. And there's just so much to take away. Like I was doing a lot of like historical pulling just to see like how like big of a game this actually was. And it's crazy. Like last week the 234 yards Rico Doddle had was the single game lead in 20, 25 for scrimmage yards. He went out the very next week and beat his own record. And then this morning I wanted to see like 230 scrimmage yards in back to back games. I can't imagine a lot of people have done that. Listen to the list of running backs that have done this in n history. Walter Payton did it in 1977, Marshall Falk in 2002, Deuce McAllister in 2003, Le'Veon Bell in 2014, Enrico Dowdle, just these last two weeks. I mean, that is like elite company to be a part of. So this isn't just like a fluke. Like, this is something that a lot of very, very good NFL running backs have never been able to do before.
- [22:27]
A
So then how would you value him over the rest of the season? Like, is this the guy that he is a running back rest of season?
- [22:33]
B
How to Chuba Hubbard? I made that switch. Like, I think Genie is out of the bottle. I don't know how high I want to move him because I do look at other guys who have like more of a secure hold on their Backfield. You know, J.K. dobbins, Chase Brown, even Kenneth Walker and David Montgomery. You know, those are offenses that I just believe in a little bit more. But I've got him inside my top 30 rest of season. I just want to see what this backfield looks like because Chuba Hubbard, they did give him a big contract and he looked good last year. They talked a lot in the preseason about it being a split. I'm not sure if this is just going to be the Rico Dowdle show going forward or if it's going to be like a 6040 split with, with Dowdle and Hubbard.
- [23:11]
A
Did you say that you had that Kenneth Walker has a better command over the backfield than Rico Dowdle might?
- [23:16]
B
No, I, I think it's going to be a similar split. I just have a little bit more faith in the Seattle offense than I do in Carolina.
- [23:23]
A
I was like, I need, I need explanation. I need context.
- [23:26]
B
So I've got Kenneth Walker. I mean, Kenneth Walker was a follower for me. Rico Dowdle was a riser for me this week. But I've still got Kenneth Walker a couple spots ahead of Dowdle.
- [23:34]
A
Okay, okay. Who else do you have as a riser from this game? Panthers, Cowboys.
- [23:40]
B
Jaden Blue. Just because Miles Sanders, we got that. It was really weird. Like he hurt himself in week four. They just like listed him as inactive for week five. We all thought it was like a mild injury. And then they're like, oh, yeah, by the way, Miles Sanders, season is over. Like, just kind of came out of nowhere in the middle of the week. Like a week and a half after he hurt himself. It was a really weird story, but now Jaden Blue's the number two. They talked him up a bunch. I mean, he did nothing in this game. Three carries for zero yards. So I don't want to get, like, too excited about it, but he is the clear number two on this offense now. So a waiver wire pickup. A guy who could have some upside later in the year.
- [24:13]
A
He's just a stash. Like, he's a stash to have there.
- [24:15]
B
But there weren't a lot of other visors from this game, like Rico Dowdle, obvious riser George Pickens. How much higher can we raise him after what he's already done this year? I feel like Jaden Blue is at least like an actionable riser.
- [24:27]
A
I can't remember who wrote it on Twitter, but someone was like, man, Jaden Blue is one twisted ankle away from being the funniest league winner this year after everyone drafted him high and then dropped him. And the he's been sitting on waivers. Yeah, that's just. That's fantasy football. All right, let's go to the next game here. Colts defeat the Cardinals 31 to 27. And man, Jacoby Preset is he America's quarterback? Because everyone was so excited about him starting and I'm even hearing talks now that people are like, man, Cardinal should just probably stick with Kobe Brissette. Which let's. Let's not get crazy here. Dave, who's your riser from this game? Colts? Cardinals.
- [25:07]
B
I dug kind of deep here, but Josh Downs was a guy that was dropped in a lot of Fantasy Leagues when 6 of 7 for 42 and a touchdown this week has averaged 6.6 targets per game over the last three games. So this is a guy that looked like he was kind of squeezed out of the game planning early in the year as Tyler Warren was just dominating the slot. But now we're seeing Tyler Warren playing a little bit more in line, playing in the slot as well. They're starting to move downs around the formation. We're seeing him play out wide a little bit. I think he's still the number three here behind Alec Pierce and Michael Pittman. But I think there is enough, especially as injuries are really starting to pile up the wide receiver position. Bye weeks are here as well. I think Josh Jones should at least be rostered as like a bi week fill in.
- [25:48]
A
Yeah, there was A very obvious like him, it kind of ties into my follower. So I'll bring it up this way. My followers, Michael Pittman Jr. And I mean he's had a lot of the touchdown cologne to like mask some ugly games recently. Michael Pittman has 41, 39 now, 20 yards each in each of these last three games here. But the offense just keeps running through Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Warren, which I think we expected. But now with Josh Downs coming in, it shows you that the floor for Michael Pittman can be a lot lower on a weekly basis than we maybe thought. And that's why like we say, like try not to chase touchdowns, chase volume. And there's been times where, where Pittman has had volume. It's just not consistent. And I, I don't, I think it's less about like Josh Downs being a guy that you want to go pick up and start and more about that. The wide receivers for this team are probably not super trustworthy. They're more of like desperation flags flexes 100 yeah.
- [26:36]
B
And then I, I don't know if he's like a riser, but Daniel Jones, man, he, he has just looked so good this year.
- [26:42]
A
Can't go any higher than QB1. Dave can't go any higher.
- [26:45]
B
I mean it's crazy. Like every week he just impresses me more and more and more. And we, we talked about a little bit this off season, like throwing some late round darts at Daniel Jones because we talked about like the Shane Steichen offense and how the play action and you were right. And dude, he has just looked unbelievable. Like I was expecting like an ugly like maybe like low end QB one season if he rushed a bunch. But like it's more than that right now. Like he looks like an amazing quarterback. Like I think at this point just basically a shoe in to win comeback player of the year.
- [27:16]
A
Okay, so wait, hold on. Let's go back here. We got Daniel Jones career renaissance, Baker Mayfield career renaissance, Sam Darnold career renaissance. Where could Justin Fields go that he gets the career renaissance?
- [27:28]
B
I mean it's got to be that Shanahan tree, right? Because we're even seeing it from Mac Jones right now. And Mac Jones career renaissance and all of these guys. If you look at it like Daniel Jones, he was under Kevin O' Connell last year. Sam Darnold under Kevin O' Connell last now. Baker Mayfield, before his renaissance spent some time with Sean McVeigh. Now Mac Jones is doing it with Kyle Shanahan. I think that's the trick. Like if you aren't doing well. Like, if you're a quarterback drafted highly, didn't do well for the first couple of years, just go to the school of Kyle Shanahan learning how to play QB good. And if you can't get in Kyle Shanahan school, QB good. You can get into, you know, one of the, one of the sister schools, McVeigh or O', Connell, one of those guys. But I think that's what you need is just like a year off to reset underneath this Shanahan tree.
- [28:09]
A
I'm desperately, I'm just, just for funsies. I'm here looking up the teams that might need a quarterback and that like, could potentially even fit Justin Fields.
- [28:19]
B
I think Justin Fields, though, I don't think he's really. Yeah, there's none. Doesn't really fit that tree.
- [28:25]
A
Yeah, you're not putting him on the Raiders.
- [28:27]
B
Sam Darnold though, too. You talk about it like Sam Darnold. This isn't fluky. Like, this is back to back games where Sam Darnold has looked like the Sam Darnold from last year too. Like, there are a lot of guys that were just like written off as jokes early in their careers who now in their like late 20s are looking like some of the, some of the better quarterbacks out there.
- [28:43]
A
Yeah, this is. I just wanted to have some fun with the Justin Fields thing, but I don't think it's very fun for anyone. My riser from the Colts Cardinals game is gonna be Bam night. And it's like we had the weird thing where Adam Schefter comes out ahead of time and says, bam Knight's gonna be the starter. And then Michael Carter takes, takes every single snap of the opening drive. And then Amari dibercato is still out there taking passing downs. Then we start to get Bam Knight worked in as a goal line carry, gets the touchdown, and then DeMarcado gets hurt. And so now we then end up seeing a Bam Knight early down work roll and a Michael Carter passing down work roll here. And Bam Knight ended up leading the team in rush attempts. They, they, he and Carter tied for the same amount of yard cards. I don't want to say that it's a Hassan Haskins Kamani Vidal situation because we ended up seeing that's not really a situation. I guess he's a riser because he's someone that you can at least start if you are desperate at a running back spot or a flex spot. Right. Like, because before no one was even rostering Bam Night. At least now you might Start him as an RB3 if you're really desperate.
- [29:53]
B
Yeah, I mean, I was on the show last week saying like, Michael Carter could make for a decent RB2 during injuries and buys and all that. And then when that pre game report came out, I was just like, what am I doing? Like, I don't even want a part of this. And in my home league, I dropped Michael Carter for Jaden Blue before the game even kicked off. Because the reality is what we're getting two more weeks before Trey Benson returns. And if this is going to be split up between all three of these running backs, it really does seem like a headache. And I'm kind of kicking myself because I even said when I, when I talked about Michael Carter, I was like, I watched the film and he's not that good, but like, somebody needs to get the touches there. And I was encouraged by the workload. And that's just sloppy, lazy analysis. So I'm kind of kicking myself for that. I think this is one of those backfields that I'm okay just kind of letting somebody else deal with.
- [30:37]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's, It's. So Bam Knight's probably going to be a guy we're talking about on the wafer wire show unless you went out and like snagged him right before games. I did that in a couple leagues. I know Jeff Bell. I kept getting more. I got more notifications that Jeff Bell was picking up Bam Knight across fantasy football leagues than I did from reporters saying that Bam Knight was going to be the star for the Cardinals. Like that. Actually, I saw those notifications before I saw the Shafter thing. So I don't know where Jeff's getting his news from, but it's phenomenal. And football guys newsletter, even that, like.
- [31:06]
B
It'S kind of a weird one because if you look at the split, like, Michael Carter had more touches and more targets than Bam Knight did. Bam Knight got the touchdown. But, like, really, this was just a gross split. And then as you said, like a little bit of Damari or Amari DeMarcusato in there as well. I, I don't know what to make of this.
- [31:22]
A
He's hurt, though, and looks like he won't be in. And so like after. It was after the Amara di Mercado injury where everything did trend more towards Bam Knight and like, he got a lot more touches and it was, a lot of. It was him just getting the carries in the ground. So I don't know. It's, it's. I don't think either of these guys are super attractive to start. It's more. So you're rostering them in case one does get hurt. And then you're also saying, okay, we've got by weeks, we've got injuries. I might have to start this guy as a desperation RB2 or as a flex play in a deep league. Like, that's, that's where you end up at with these players.
- [31:56]
B
McBride with his best game of the year. We like that from Jacoby Brissette, you know, getting 72 yards and a touchdown for McBride. That's. That's what we'd like to see every week.
- [32:05]
A
Yeah, I mean, I tweeted something earlier in the week before the game, like, Jacob Brissette will target the tight end quite a bit to add the context there. Marvin Harrison Jr. Leaves mid game with a concussion. So, like, like you're naturally going to have more targets for Trey McBride, but yeah, I mean, it's good for him. This is a, this is a good game. Kind of what we wanted to see. Not sure if we get Brissette again in, in the next game for the Cardinals, but, you know, we'll keep an eye on that as we go forward.
- [32:31]
B
Just a bit of housekeeping because we talked about Pukunuku already while we were recording. I just got a. An alert in Rapaport. They're saying it is a sprained ankle and he is expected to miss some time. So nothing that we didn't kind of of anticipated, but official. Yeah, they said that they're going to miss next week and then take the bye week to reassess.
- [32:51]
A
Okay. Okay, cool. Yeah, it does seem like every player is injured. You see the Juwan Jennings things, the Juwan Jennings, like, list of injuries where he's like, I've got a sprained ankle, a hurt wrist, five broken ribs, high.
- [33:03]
B
Ankle sprain, and a low ankle sprain.
- [33:05]
A
Insane. Skipped right past the middle of the ankle. High, low. Just nuts. All right, let's go to the next game on here. Seahawks beat the Jaguars 20 to 12 in what was basically just the Jackson Smith jigba versus Brian Thomas Jr. Game. Dave, who was your big riser from this one?
- [33:23]
B
Sam Darnold. And I kind of touched on it briefly when we were talking about Daniel Jones, but he's looked great. And again, like, I think so much of what we do, like, people still think about week one because people get so excited about week one. And he did have a pretty lousy week one. He scored 20 plus fantasy points in every single game since week one. I'm not ready to put him inside my top 12 yet. But he is absolutely in the streaming discussion. And I mean, this was a pretty low volume game. Just 27 pass attempts, but 295 yards, two touchdowns. I mean, he is just so efficient in this offense that when we see the low volume games, he's still giving you kind of high end QB2 numbers. And then in the occasion that they have to really air it out, he's good enough that he can be one of those like top three, top five guys on a weekly basis.
- [34:06]
A
Nine touchdowns, one interception over the last four weeks. Like, Sam Darnold continues to just play good ball.
- [34:13]
B
Yeah.
- [34:14]
A
And a lot of it is him. It's, it's like the simple thing we always talk about is like get good players the football. And Sam Darnold is doing what every fan wants him to do is to get the ball to Jackson Smith, Jigba, man. Like, that's it. Just, just do the simple thing. Cooper cup got his first touchdown of the season here. So it's like he's not only using jsn, but you know, he, he's, he knows what side, what side is bread is buttered on, man. Like he's going to Jackson Smith and Jigba as much as he can and it's paying dividends for him.
- [34:41]
B
Also, shout out Jason. A lot of people kind of knock the athleticism, saying that he's just like one of those like technician type of players, which he certainly is. But also hit the highest speed in week six. 21.1 miles per hour on that 61 yard touchdown. I mean, this guy, he's got wheels too, that I, I didn't know he had. Like, I, I never really thought of JSN as like a burner, but here he is. Fastest guy on the week, so just doing it all plus yards in four of six games so far this year. It's been awesome to see.
- [35:09]
A
Yeah. And he was so close. He actually almost had over 100 yards in week three where he had 96 yards, but only played 49 of the snaps in that game. That was the, that was the weird New Orleans game where they got like ahead early and people were just taken out. Dude. Jsn, like, it's not even that he's, he's good right now. It's that he might be the fantasy wide receiver one, maybe two if we're counting Puka, but if Puka's out like jsn, I do think is the wide receiver one in fantasy football here. Pat ourselves in the back, man, we were both Very high on JSN going into this year and I think a lot of people were worried about Sam Darnold. He's proved people wrong and this offense still looks good.
- [35:50]
B
He's my wide receiver one right now. I've got with the Puka to injury. I knocked him down a few spots. So Puka is my wide receiver four only because of the injury. But yeah, JSN is my rest of season wide receiver one right now, which like, I had very high expectations. I did not expect him to be my wide receiver one by week six.
- [36:06]
A
Well, I think what helps keeping him as the wide receiver one is the fact that this run game can't get anything going and there's so much confusion as to who's actually playing. I'll go back to my, to my riser, but I just kind of want to transition into this because it's still a Seahawks. It's Kenneth Walker III is my father and I think it's the same for you on the Seahawks. Zach Charvaday leads the Seahawks and carries in each of the last three weeks. And like, I just, I don't understand, like, neither of these guys are creating a rhythm out there. Neither of these guys have been very productive. They're having identical crappy games together. And this is very out of the ordinary for Clint Kubiak who normally picks an RB one and rides with that guy. And it's just not happening here. I'm wondering if, is Kenneth Walker hurt? Like we had these concerns week one and then all of a sudden he goes and gets a bunch of volume. No idea. No idea. But it makes it very hard to want to start these guys. And it's, it's probably one of the worst kind of players you can have in fans fantasy because you feel like you have to start them every single week.
- [37:08]
B
And I think that's it. Yeah, you have to start like Walker and Charbonnet. I think they're both just like weekly flex plays. And if Walker could rip off a 60 yard play and if Charbonnet can get into the end zone, you feel like a genius. And then in the weeks like this where there are no explosive plays and there are no touchdowns, you're like, why did I start these guys? But yeah, just very frustrating players that I think you just need to keep putting in your lineup. And if you're sick of a headache and you want to like sell low. Low, I, I wouldn't really blame anybody for selling low on either of these players. And you might even be selling high on Zach Sharpening based off of his pre draft cost. But I feel like you're kind of selling low on both of these guys just to get him off your team.
- [37:44]
A
I know you mentioned earlier that you, you'd keep Kenneth Walker, like you like the situation for him a little bit better. Am I getting that right than, than Rico Dowdle?
- [37:52]
B
Yeah.
- [37:55]
A
Yeah, I think I'm, I think I'm gonna have Rico ahead of Kenneth Walker here. Like he's just doing unprecedented stuff and like running backs aren't doing again, Ken Walker, man, like it's, I'm the biggest Ken Walker supporter. I think he's a phenomenal player, great athlete, all that. This usage is just not something that you want to be dealing with on a week in, week out basis. A little more positive riser from this game. Brian Thomas Jr. 10 targets, eight receptions, almost had a ninth reception for a touchdown. It was a crazy play that bounces off the corner, he picks it up out of the air, runs for a touchdown down, and it's called back on a penalty. So this would have been an absolute monster, even more of a monster blow up game for Brian Jr. Here.
- [38:34]
B
It was called back because of a Travis Hunter offsides.
- [38:37]
A
Like they said, he's lined up offsides, 4 inches offsides.
- [38:40]
B
Did you see, he checked on it too? Like you see that all the time where like the receiver will line up, look to the ref and he checked for it. The ref said he was good and then snapped the play and then threw the flag. So like Hunter was heated about it after the game as he should be. Like, like this took off. What should have been like finally like that big blow up Brian Thomas Jr. Game that we've been waiting for and just got completely hosed by the refs on that one.
- [39:02]
A
Man, all my friends hate NFL referees. That's, that's, that's, that's where we're at. That's where we're at. But Brian Thomas, man, he, he's been great against press man coverage and we know that when Brian Thomas gets a man coverage defense, he's going to be able to produce a little bit more. Seahawks were also missing guys in their secondary, so it's not, it wasn't a big surprise. Like there were a lot of shows and analysts and rankers out there predicting a big week for Brian Thomas Jr. And that is what happened going forward. Dave, I just need to pull it up really quickly here who the Jaguars have next because I don't think they're going to have so many easy weeks. I mean, Los Angeles Rams next week it's not a great matchup, but it's not not. It's fine. It's fine. Then you got the buy in week eight and then when you come back out, you've got the Raiders, Texans, Chargers, Cardinals, Titans. There's going to be some easy matchups. I don't think that the schedule is, I wouldn't say it is overwhelmingly easy for Brian Thomas Jr. Going forward is what I would say here. I think that this is probably one of the bigger games you have here. So if you've been frustrated by Brian Thomas and you're saying like, what do I do with him? This might be the big sale game, like the, the big game that you needed to sell him for, for someone else, you know, or you're just holding on. I wouldn't be running around trying to buy high on Brian Thomas Jr.
- [40:24]
B
Right now. And this is one where like I actually had a little bit of time this morning. I went through and I watched the All 22 from Brian Thomas because they are starting to use him the way that I think he's best. Like you said, he's good at beating pressman coverage when he's outside and when he's outside the numbers and when he's on the boundary, that's where he plays his best football. That's where he had his touchdown catch, that's where he had the negated touchdown catch. And I saw he had three pass attempts, three targets that went to him across the middle of the field. One of them was a drop, one of them was just like him not catching the ball. Like he like didn't even make an attempt to go after the ball. And then he had another like little catch. But like I don't know why Liam Cohen keeps trying to do this. Like there's something fundamentally wrong with Brian Thomas when he has to go across the middle of the field. But Liam Cohen keeps drawing these up. I wonder at what point, like it does seem like the, the Jaguars have done some decent self scouting this year and that's why we see Parker Washington's role rising and he's kind of that guy working out of the slot. Good things there. I wonder at what point they're just going to say, all right Brian Thomas Jr. Like you are playing on the boundary and that's it. Like we're not even going to try to mess around with putting you across the middle of the field anymore.
- [41:25]
A
A quick look ahead. By the way, Rams do play the 9th most man coverage in the NFL, so could be seeing another good week from Brian Thomas. Jr. There. So keep them in your lineups. For sure. Let's go to the next game on.
- [41:37]
B
Here, the one I'm most excited to talk about. Alfredo.
- [41:43]
A
I feel a certain way.
- [41:44]
B
Yeah.
- [41:45]
A
Chargers defeat the Dolphins 29, 27. And.
- [41:55]
B
I just want to ask real quickly because like Darren Waller catches that touchdown and I think like 99, like if it was just any other teams like without logos on the helmet, I'd be like, you know what? This team should win the game. Like they just threw a touchdown, drove down the field. But because it was the Dolphins, I was like, there's no chance. The Dolphins aren't gonna let the Chargers go down the field and score right here. And that's exactly something.
- [42:16]
A
I tweeted something where I was like, okay, first and goal from the four yard line. It's about time for the 2A tongue of Iloa to throw a pick. And he doesn't. He didn't throws the touchdown.
- [42:28]
B
Yeah.
- [42:28]
A
And I got. I'm a Dolphins fan, guys like you can't hurt me anymore. And I get all the Dolphins fans seeing saying like oops, looks like you were wrong. And everyone getting all up in arms. Very next play. Chargers are back on offense. Justin Herbert's easily throw into lad McConkey who's breaking tackles like no one's business. They get themselves positioned for the field goal and they win. The Dolphins are just one of the most unserious teams in the NFL right now.
- [42:56]
B
And don't forget the TUA did come in like the Dolphins got a chance and throw a pick. Yeah. So like you didn't get it. But yeah, the very next missed opportunity that he could throw a pick, he did.
- [43:06]
A
So his third, like outside of the. What I think Dolphins fans thought would be the. Would be. Go ahead, drive. Tuatanga by Loa was really, really bad in this game. Really bad. And this has been something that like I don't know if it's, if it's a mental thing or whatever, but this has been something that Dolphins hands have talked about forever, which has been one. There's a lot. There's always been the Tua Herbert thing between Dolphins fans where they all wish that we would have gotten Herbert or people trying to support like getting to over Herbert Herbert. Herbert came in and outclassed to a tungavilla in every single way on the field. Even in the post game stuff like let's just be real. Jim Harbaugh was another guy who was rumored to be a Dolphins head coach for years because Steven Ross is a Michigan man. Comes in Destroys the game. And then in the press conference starts talking about how the Dolphins and the coaching staff. Bunch of great guys. Bunch of great guys, hard workers. Like everything from the Chargers was absolute dubs from them. Yeah, two attacks, throws, three interceptions, plays a terrible game. He's had three games with less than 210 passing yards. Schedule does not get easier for him. The vibes around the team are just horrible. And then the post game interview is just absolutely asinine by him. Like to go out and say it starts with leadership and then to mention player only meetings again, again, and then be like, it's, it's the leadership. We have people not showing up. We're trying to find the guy who did this. I mean, like, dude, he's, he's totally Tim Robinson in the hot dog suit, man. Just pointing fingers. It's absolutely insane. Like that is nuts behavior to be the team captain and say the players only meetings needs better leadership. What? Especially after you threw three interceptions. Like, dude, dude, look at yourself. I don't know what it is. He's been a totally different Persona over the last couple of years and I'm sure it's the frustrations, but like, this dude has become highly unlikable. He's become unplayable in fantasy. And the Dolphins team is just in absolute shambles. I hate every second of it.
- [45:12]
B
And I think the worst thing too is like, you know, everything gets so heavily scrutinized when these guys are talking to the media and whatnot. But like early last week he was doing this whole, like, I don't really care about football. You know, I got a family, win or lose, I'm going home, my kids are excited to see me, yada, yada yada. And like, you can't have it that way. And then like six days later be calling for accountability from your teammates. Like when you are like the one. I don't know, it's just, it's weird. I don't know if he just lacks self awareness or what it is, but.
- [45:41]
A
It'S not even the things he says.
- [45:42]
B
I don't want to be a Dolphins fan.
- [45:44]
A
Like, dude, it's not even the things he's saying, it's the way he's saying them. Absolutely. It's great to have perspective that this is just the game. You're going home to your kids, right? Absolutely. It's great to say you need leadership on a team and everyone should be doing their part. It's the way he's saying them, the timing of them. It's like, dude, read the room. Please read the room.
- [46:06]
B
I had my immediate, like, gut reactions to his comments, but I was like, I kind of want to wait to see. Because, you know, there's so many, like, I ex players in the media. I was like, I want to wait to see if, like, X players agree or disagree with me. And every X player was like, what is he doing? All right, so it's not just me. Like, that one really riled up the ex players.
- [46:23]
A
You don't air grievances publicly. It's like me and my wife were fighting.
- [46:27]
B
Oh, yeah? What? Did you see Deshaun Hamilton's tweet?
- [46:31]
A
Yes.
- [46:32]
B
Huh?
- [46:33]
A
Yeah.
- [46:33]
B
Yeah.
- [46:35]
A
You have it? Do you have it up?
- [46:37]
B
I can pull it up in just a second. Yeah, I'll read it word for word here. I did bookmark it just in case.
- [46:42]
A
It came up Kim. It was Andrew Whitworth. It was Kurt Warner. Like, everyone was piling onto Tua.
- [46:49]
B
So Deshaun Hamilton was only with the team for a very short period, but he, quote, tweeted the clip of TUA talking by Loa, talking about the leadership and accountability and showing up late for meetings. And he said, this dude, the starting quarterback, was late to the first team meeting during my three seconds with the Dolphins, and everything was all cool in there. So, I mean, like, he's talking about people showing up late, fights, people showing up late, and then getting called out by his own teammates for showing up late to meetings. Like, not good, man. Not good.
- [47:17]
A
Absolutely nuts. Absolutely nuts. Like, you just don't do this, man. You don't go and air things out publicly in a grievance like this. It's like, if me and my wife are having marital issues, and I went out onto the podcast to go talk about it, like, I'm the problem, then.
- [47:31]
B
You know, like, you are the accountability for. Yeah, we're not even gonna go there.
- [47:38]
A
Don't. Don't. Don't give them ammo. Don't give them ammo.
- [47:40]
B
Both.
- [47:41]
A
Okay, there's. There are some positives from this game. Dave, why don't you start us off with your riser from this game?
- [47:46]
B
Come on. Even doll, obviously, I mean, this is one that I think we were both kind of just like, hey, let's. Let's stay away from this backfield. It's probably gonna be a gross split. And then they even, like, added Nahim Heinz midweek. And I was just like, this is going to be a typical split Greg Roman backfield. And then we get the pregame report. Like, Hasan Haskins is going to be the Starter and Kamani Vidal comes out here and like, I had to do the, the Toby Maguire a few times where I'm like, is that. Is that Austin Eckler out there? Because he looked a lot like him, dude.
- [48:14]
A
I mean, everything looked really good from Kamani Vidal this week. And it's hard to not see him being the guy going forward. There was a lot of rumors of like, oh, could the Chargers go after Alvin Camara or Breeze hall or anyone else? Which I think would be kind of wild to make a big trade like that for just missing, you know, four to six weeks of Amarian Hampton. But come on. Looks like he's. He's going to be carrying the workload for them. He looked good in this game. Once again, it is the Miami Dolphins. Dolphins. Rico Dowdle went out and had a big game. Maybe. Come on. If a Dal is just going to keep throwing out, you know, 100 plus yard games every week after, you know, the Dolphins just send him off into Valhalla and make him a Viking lord of running backs. But yeah, another riser from this. Like, I went a little deeper on this one, but a Ronda Gadsden second, I will say, like, first context is that Quentin Johnson's not in the game, but also Trey Harris came in and played for Quentin Johnston sort of took over that role. It wasn't the same, obviously, but. But Aranda Gadson was second on the team in snaps. He's seen his snaps increase every single week. Seven receptions on eight targets for 69 yards. Nice. But Herbert just missed them on a touchdown too. Like, it would have been an even bigger day for him as well. Like, I think Gadsden now becomes one of these guys who's like a matchup dependent streamer with how good the Chargers offense has been. They're not going to be playing the Dolphins every week, but when you've got these matchups where they're going up against teams that give up a lot of points to tight ends. Yeah, I'm going to be streaming them, you know, each week.
- [49:32]
B
Yeah, I mean, just seeing his role steadily growing. We know this is a guy talk about those NFL bloodlines all the time. And Gadson's got him. Yeah, Big, big fan of what we saw from him this week. The only target he didn't catch was in the end zone, too. I don't know if you mentioned that. I mean.
- [49:47]
A
Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was that. That end zone target that just barely missed him. Yeah, he had, he did have the play early where he caught it and then fumbled. And like just responded well, man. Came back and played well. Well, all right, next game on here. Steelers beat the Browns 23 9. My riser from this game, Harold Fannin. We got the injury to David Joku. Looks like a hyperextended knee. We're not sure how much time he'll miss. But Harold Fannon, career high 81 yards. He had seven receptions, 80% snaps this week. He's been around that same snap percentage for the last three weeks. He gets the Miami Dolphins next week. So yeah, if Ronda Gadsden was out there putting up numbers, I'm expecting Harold Fannin to do the same. Especially if there's no David Najoku, regardless of who the quarterback is. Even with Dylan Gabriel, who's just beaming guys in the helmet with the football. I don't know if you saw that Isaiah Bond at the goal line. Just great stuff.
- [50:37]
B
That was frustrating. Yeah. Somebody who was desperate enough to have to start Isaiah Bond in a handful of leagues this week. But same though, I mean, Dylan Gabriel, like just loves throwing to the tight end. So like that is just the focal point of the offense since Dylan Gabriel has taken over some completely with you on Fan and, and you know, it might sound, you know, I do these rest of season rankings and like one of the places that I'm willing to make like huge swings are in tight ends because you've kind of got your guys up top that are like very, very secure. And outside of that, I feel like everybody is very, very Chernable and Harold Fannin now inside my top 12 rest of season and I don't really have any reason not to keep him there.
- [51:13]
A
No. Dave, who's. Who's your rise from this game?
- [51:16]
B
Riser from this game? Jerome Ford. Just because we saw a little bit more production than I think people had expected. And this is a weird game script. Like they were down the entire time, Steelers came in favorites, got the first score and then just kept the lead the entire game. But it was pretty frustrating to see Judkins finally have a game script that didn't work in his favor. Like, we've seen him in a lot of close games and he has been active as a rusher and a receiver. But it does make me wonder if we're going to see more of these game scripts where they're just trailing the entire game if we're going to see Judkins get phased out. Jerome Ford kind of come in as that passing down guy. Guy not crazy about the. The usage in this game for the backfield.
- [51:51]
A
Yeah, yeah. I think he's just one of those guys you stash to see, you know, if, if you ever can use him based on an injury. But I don't think you're ever flexing him faller for me, Jalen Warren, I know he's still coming off an injury and it's, it's. He's not going to be given a full workload, but we still saw a lot of Kenneth Gainwell and then Caleb Johnson appeared to keep the minimal role he had when Jalen Warren was out. And I think that's the big thing for me now is that becomes sort of a three headed backfield. Even though I know that Jalen Warren's gonna get the majority of the character. Carries and, and touches and the Steelers are winning games. But there's just enough here where Jaylen Warren's not this sort of like top 15 running back where he's probably closer to like RB 20 to 28 on, on any given week, you know, where he's not quite as valuable. So that's just something I'm paying attention to. Is that three headed backfield.
- [52:42]
B
Yeah, Warren was a follower for me for sure, but my father in this one is going to be Calvin Austin and maybe I'm thinking like outside the box too much, but he obviously didn't play in this game and there was a lot of talk about like, is it going to be Scotty Miller, is it going to be Roman Wilson? Like who's going to be that guy that's going to step in as the wide receiver too? And neither. It was just like 13 personnel and 22 personnel and like I think this is the offense that Arthur Smith has just dreamed of having one day is like just one receiver and it's just a monster, monstrous man in DK that.
- [53:12]
A
Looks like a tight end.
- [53:13]
B
Exactly right. I think this is like what, like this is the Arthur Smith end game. I think that we're there like the first snap from scrimmage, 13 personnel. We've got three tight ends bunch to the right and I don't know if you saw how they ran the play. Like they put Darnell Washington, you know, they're 6 foot 8, like nearly 300 pound. He looks like a lineman out there. They put him in motion and then they had him run up the seam through the middle of the offensive line where he like, like Arthur Smith was in his bag. And I wonder if now he's like, wait, I don't need a second receiver. If this is just what we're gonna.
- [53:43]
A
See them do going forward just an Absolute madman. All right, we'll go quickly on some of these games that aren't as big, but Patriots beat the Saints. This is. I actually do think that this is a big one because Drake May is playing really, really good football. I know it's just the Saints, but the Saints have been scrappy. They've been kind of feisty this year. Patriots win 25 19. Dave, am I crazy to say that outside of Baker and Patrick Mahomes, I don't know if there's another quarterback playing better than Drake May, at least on a consistent basis. Like, we've had some good games from Dak here and there. We've had good games from Stafford here and there. But I think consistently Drake Mays looked really good. Two or more touchdowns in four of the last five games. Only one interception over the last five weeks. Fun stat from next gen stats here. Drake May joins Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks age 23 or younger with 200 plus passing yards and a 100 plus passer rating in five consecutive games. He's just playing really good football, man. And it's, it's showing for fantasy too. Like he's a top five fantasy quarterback pretty much every single week even though he's not doing as much running as he was last year.
- [54:49]
B
Yeah, dude, he's unreal. He is so good. Like, you know, as a Bears fan, I like Caleb Williams and I'm happy we drafted him, but I can't help but feel like big Fans got the third best quarterback in this draft. I mean, that 2020 could have had.
- [54:59]
A
Mitchell Trubisky 2.0 man.
- [55:01]
B
And I mean, that's what a lot of people expected him to be. But dude, this, this 2424 class is just like, might be the one that kind of like reshapes the NFL. The fun thing too with Drake May and I was looking at his passing chart yesterday, only had three pass attempts that went 20 plus yards downfield, three for three with three touchdowns on those three pass attempts. I mean like he is just. Dude, he's so good.
- [55:23]
A
And those, those. I was looking at the same thing. All of those were so sorry. Drake May under pressure on all three of his touchdown passes in the first half against the Saints. All three were deep passes of 20 plus air yards thrown to the left side of the field. So it's like not only was he getting the ball out deep, but thriving under pressure and turning those into touchdowns. Like Drake May versus pressure in the first half. He was 7 of 8144 yards and three touchdowns. Touchdowns. Like, this was a dude that was just bawling when things got tougher for him.
- [55:53]
B
And it goes to show the versatility too, because last week against Buffalo, they kept flushing him out of the pocket and every single time they would. He would go right and then he would throw to the right side of the field. So that was clearly like, you know, let's try to make sure he can't do that in this game. And then what does he do? He just starts flushing out to the left and hitting deep shots on the left side of the field. Like this guy can really do it all. I think the Patriots have somebody special there.
- [56:14]
A
It's the sign of a good quarterback. Guys that can extend the play. Play like it's not just rushing. Ability and ability to like to run because Justin Fields has that, but he can't extend a play. I mean, dude, Drake May just looking. Looking phenomenal here. Dave, who's your riser from this game?
- [56:29]
B
Riser from this game? You know, I didn't want to go with Drake May, because you already did. So digging a little bit here. Alvin Camara went back to the lead in carries and targets. Sounds like he's going to be a saint. Said he doesn't want to leave. And I think he's got something in his contract that allows him to. To make that claim. So, I mean, like, not a riser. And like, you know, Alvin Camara is back. You know, RB1 fired him up just.
- [56:52]
A
Like Camara's who we thought he was.
- [56:54]
B
Yeah, Camara's a saint and he's going to remain a saint and he's going to keep catching passes. And I think that we're going to continue to see kind of what we have seen, which is like a 6040 split. But the Kedre Miller train that was running really hot the last few weeks that cooled off, he didn't look quite as good in this matchup. And it seems like Alvin Camara, you know, probably not going to be the. The. The top 12 running back you would hope for, but still a playable rb.
- [57:14]
A
Do I faller from this game, but apparently not in the eyes of Mike Vrabel from Andre Stevenson. Listen, like, I know in this game he still had more than twice as many snaps as Trevian Henderson, but he only had four more touches than Henderson. And the. The workload, despite not being on the field as much, is starting to even out. And just a simple look back over the last two games. Randre Stevenson, 17 rushing attempts, 33 yards, averaging less than 2 yards per carry. He's at 1.9 yards per carry. Not that Travion Henderson is amazing, but at least it's better. 15 carries, 51 yards, three and a half yards per carry. At some point, Dave, like this conventional wisdom just like. Or conventional logic, not even wisdom here, like have to say that they need to give the ball to Trevion Henderson more. I don't understand it.
- [58:06]
B
Yeah, I think we've been there for like weeks, but this is just Mike Frable. I don't know if it's like hard coaching, like if he's trying to get the best out of Trayvon Henderson, but you're looking at like the yards per carry. Looking at yards per touch. If you like, factor in the reception. Sue. 1.4 to 3.6 for Henderson. I mean that's just, it's crazy. Like Ramadre Stevenson is a liability out there. He's not generating yards after contact. He's not breaking tackles. He's fumbling the ball. They've got this highly drafted early second round pick in Trayvon Henderson in and they just don't want to use him. I don't, I don't get it.
- [58:36]
A
Well, and the Patriots are going to be a team that's like they're in the running for the playoffs. Like they're playing some of the best football in the afc. I think as the games continue to get more competitive and wins become more important, these mistakes from Aron J. Stevenson and the ineffectiveness from Roger Stevenson, like it can't stand, like it can't just keep happening as the games and wins become more important. Who's your follower from this game?
- [58:59]
B
Hunter Henry. And I mean it's just back to back weeks without a touchdown. And like, you know, this is again more of like just a commentary on the tight end landscape as a whole. But it's like when these guys are scoring touchdowns, we love them. And I remember like I tweeted something about how bad the tight end landscape was two weeks ago and everybody was like, oh, tell me you didn't draft Hunter Henry without telling me you didn't draft Hunter Henry because he was coming off three touchdowns in two games. But 46 yards last week, week, 27 yards this week. You know, he had that game earlier in the year where he had nine yards. He's just, you know, I, I get it. Like we saw one game with eight catches for 11 targets and got really excited about that. But the reality is he's just a boomer bust tight end like the rest of them and it's been a lot more boom and a lot or a lot more bust and a lot less boom lately.
- [59:43]
A
Next game on here. Raiders Defeat the Titans 20 to 10 in the pillow fight of the century. Well, except for the London game. This just, it didn't look good at any point like any of this game. Cam Ward, I don't think he's a bad prospect and I don't think he's going to be a bad player. But he's doing some very funny rookie stuff, man. Like he's doing the thing, like he's doing the thing where he's losing the ball like mid throw. It's just he's, he stared at the defense, have seven men all very obviously blitzing and he just didn't move. Like he just stood there and took the hit right up the middle. Oddly enough, he's not my follower because you can't fall any lower than where the Titans are at right now.
- [60:34]
B
QB per game. QB 32 right now. There are 32 games.
- [60:38]
A
Yeah, that's gross. That's gross. I'll start more positive. My riser from this is Ashton Gency and he didn't exactly have an amazing game game. He did get a touchdown. It's a thing where like teams know what the Raiders are going to do. Teams know the Raiders are just going to run the ball. More than half of his runs were against a stacked line of scrimmage where there's seven plus defenders up there trying to stop Ashton Ginty. And it doesn't matter. Like the Raiders just keep doing it. He's had 21 or more opportunities in each of his last three games. It's not always pretty, but the offense is just running through him and I think we're seeing that. And I'll kind of mix it in because my followers Jacoby Myers. Myers. And I think we're seeing that in the way that the team is now passing the ball. Jacoby Myers, four receptions for 39 yards. It's his third straight game under 40 yards receiving. Like this is not a team where initially we were like, okay, Brock Bowers, Geno Smith, Jacoby Myers, man, it's going to be. That ball is going to be going through the air a ton, right? Wrong. This has just not been the team that we thought they would be. They're very, I mean they're a lot worse. The offensive identity is very different. Different. Excuse me. Even the broadcast had a moment where they said, said Jacoby Myers is not the number one wide receiver on this team anymore. It's actually Trey Tucker, he's the new wide receiver one. And funny enough, looking at the numbers.
- [61:49]
B
Gino, from that right where Gino said he's like, my favorite wide receiver, I.
- [61:53]
A
May have misheard it. Yeah. Okay.
- [61:54]
B
And. Well, they were saying that, like, Gino has, like, come out and bluntly said that, like, Trey Tucker is his favorite receiver.
- [62:01]
A
Yikes.
- [62:02]
B
Yeah.
- [62:02]
A
Well, you know what? Really funny. Trey Tucker gets one more snap, one more route, and one more target target than Jacoby Myers. So, yeah, there. There's that. Also, just side note, Jack Besh had a big boost in snaps and routes, but zero targets. So it might be something, might be nothing, but he played 100 of the snaps in three wide receiver sets, so it looks like that's now his role there.
- [62:20]
B
And I think people are holding on to Dante Thornton, too, just because of, like, the. The.
- [62:24]
A
Yeah, you could let him go.
- [62:25]
B
Besh has completely taken his role. So, like, in your deep leagues, you could move on from Thornton and pick up Besh. Last thing I want to note about Genti, too, is, like, I think if you asked anybody in the world, like, how Ash and Genti is doing, doing, they would say it's been a disappointing year. But, like, we. We talked about this. That, like the. The boom case.
- [62:40]
A
He's made lemonade.
- [62:41]
B
Yeah. And. And we talked, like, the best case scenario is that he's like a rookie year, Saquon Barkley, where he is just breaking fantasy football. We said the worst case is still like, a Trent Richardson or Anaji Harris where they weren't great, but there was still enough volume to get him there. And. And we're seeing, like, a better version of that. Like, he's still pacing for over 1400 scrimmage yards this year. And I don't think a lot of people realize that, like, he's facing for 1200 on the. On the ground and over 200 through the air. Like, he has not been a bust. He might not be, you know, giving you top three value, but, like, this is a plug and play RB1, getting a lot of volume. Who looks better almost every single week.
- [63:15]
A
He's the running back 10 in fantasy right now.
- [63:17]
B
What a bus.
- [63:18]
A
He's got five. Five touchdowns through six weeks. Yeah, we can. We can relax. We can relax. Dave, who your win, your rises and followers from this game.
- [63:27]
B
I'm glad that you asked me both of these at the same time because they are very connected. My riser is Tajie Spears and my faller is Tony Pollard. Pollard. Tony Pollard. Dude, he just. He looks terrible. Like, and I get it, you know, he's, he's getting up there in age. He had a lot of touches last year, was handling every single touch through the first month of the season. But Taji Spears comes in here, just looks so much better. 3.3 yards per touch for Tony Pollard, 5.6 yards per touch for Tajie Spears. Like, you just see both of these guys play. One has juice and one does not. And it's very obvious that the younger guy looks better right now. There's a lot of talk in the preseason about how, how good Tajie Spears looked at the end of the year and how Brian Callahan was going to have a split backfield. I think now that Taj Spears is, you know, two weeks under his belt coming back from that ankle injury, it wouldn't shock me one bit if we see the table completely flip and Tajie Spears ends up kind of being the RB1A in this backfield.
- [64:16]
A
Dude, if I'm the Titans, I don't understand why I'm not shipping Calvin Ridley and Tony Pollard for whatever draft picks I can get at this point. Like get those contracts off your book games.
- [64:26]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [64:27]
A
Like, it's just nothing is helping you here. Like Tony Pollard. He may not be great, but I can imagine you can go and get a fifth round pick, maybe a day three pick from the Chiefs or, or the Chargers or someone that's in need of a running back. Like just, I don't know, man, it, it seems kind of malpractice to keep holding on.
- [64:47]
B
You need those veterans to help develop your young rookie quarterback. You know, Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett and Tony Pollard. You don't get it, Alfredo, but these guys are doing more good than they are Harm. You just got to see the locker room presence they bring.
- [65:00]
A
They should have some player only meetings. Let's see how that goes. Bucks defeat the 49ers 30 to 19 and Dave, I mentioned Drake May, Patrick Mahomes being two of the best quarterbacks in football right now. I think the best, the best quarterback in football right now is Baker May 1st field. I think he is playing at an MVP level. I don't think it's hyperbole. I don't think it's just the crazy run that he had where he breaks four tackles and extends for a first down on third and long. I don't think it's just him throwing to a bunch of guys who were seventh round picks and undrafted players and veterans that with injury problems. It's all of it. It's all of it. And doing it consistently and being able to battle through injuries to his top players and finding new adversities each week. Baker Mayfield looks fantastic. He's playing great for fantasy. No Mike Evans, no Chris Godwin, Noah Mecca Buka, it just doesn't matter. He's averaging 300 plus passing yards over the last three games. A lock to throw two touchdowns in each game. Like it just does not matter. Looking ahead, go like deep into the fantasy playoffs. You know you're just going to start Baker Mayfield every week. But they play Miami in the fantasy champion championship week 17. Like I make whatever moves you can get. Buccaneers on your team, have Baker Mayfield as your quarterback. Probably not after this week if you can't buy him. But like, gosh, if you've got Baker Mayfield, don't drop him for anything. I don't care. The, the Bucks could have three bye weeks in a row. I'm not dropping Baker Mayfield at this point.
- [66:30]
B
Yeah, I, I love Baker. Like he's been one of my favorite players for a long time. I remember you and I doing a show like years and years ago where I was saying that like I like Baker because he kind of harnesses the energy of Jay Cutler that we lost years ago with just like, but like plays with a little bit more fire. But like that like Jake Plummer type of quarterback that is just gonna like do whatever he can. Like play as hard as he can. Like he is going to leave his heart on that field trying to win. You talk about like overcoming adversities. He did this last year too. Like last year, Chris Godwin, season ending injury. Mike Evans missed a big chunk of time and we were like, who are these guys? Like, yeah, Kate otten and Jalen McMillan and like guys just popping up out of nowhere having huge weeks and, and now we're seeing the same thing this year. Like it doesn't matter. No Bucky Irving, no Mike Evans, no Chris Godwin, no Wameka Buka. And they're just like, okay, cool. Tess Johnson, Cameron Johnson, like these are just like create a player Madden names that are just popping up out of nowhere having big games and it doesn't matter. Like they played without Tristan Wurfs. It didn't matter. Like Baker Mayfield is just going to win games. It's what he does.
- [67:32]
A
The Bucks are the little giants of the NFL right now. Like they're just walking around finding 140 pound dudes with the last name Johnson and like you want to play for us and they just, they just do it and they win. By the way, I actually love Tez Johnson coming out of Oregon. It was just a shame that he ran a bad 40 and he weighs like the same as my wife.
- [67:49]
B
Did you hear? He thought the MVP chance were for him. After he scored the touchdown, he said everyone started chanting mvp. And he said in his head, he was like, I've only been here for a minute and I haven't done anything yet. And then after the game, they told him the chance for four. Baker Mayfield.
- [68:02]
A
Duh. Okay. Madden self awareness rating, very low. Very low. He does the backflip and I remember Baker was asked about it and he's like, yeah, if I weighed 142 pounds too, I'd be doing some backflips. You'd see me flying. It's. They're fun.
- [68:19]
B
That was like a handspring into like a full flip twist and stuck the landing. I mean, that was. I'm not like a gymnast judge by any means, but that was freaking impressive.
- [68:29]
A
Even a 10 from the Germans. Dave, who are your risers and fallers? I think we have the same faller, right? It's a mech egg Buka. Because the hamstring. No, my.
- [68:37]
B
My follower is Juwan Jennings, who is apparently like, just in a full body cast that they just have to, like, break out of him on Sunday morning so he can go out there. Like, he was the. The wide receiver too, behind Kendrick Bourne, and I'm sure at some point he will be healthy enough to return to be the Juwan Jennings of old. But five broken ribs, a high ankle sprain, a low ankle sprain, and who knows what else. Juwan Jennings is my follower. Like, I. I don't want to trust this guy in my lineup until I see him healthy for a full game game. My followers or my risers, though, just like any pass catcher on Tampa Bay. Like, I'm not going to count out Baker Mayfield. So if Buka misses time, if Evans can't come back, if Chris Godwin can't come back, Sterling Shepard, Pez Johnson, Cameron Johnson, Kate Otten. I'm going to be streaming all of these guys next week.
- [69:23]
A
Yeah, Tess Johnson becomes fun, man. Like, I. I think he becomes an interesting guy. Like, we'll talk about all of them probably in the waiver wire show tomorrow. Tomorrow. That becomes a really interesting one up against the Lions because it'll have to be a shootout. Like, it'll just have to be a shootout the way the Bucks are going here. All right, next game on here. Packers defeat the Bengals 27 to 18. We kind of got what we wanted. The Bengals Were a decent offense and fun to watch again. And my risers, Jamar Chase, 10 receptions on 12 targets. And it, I almost didn't put him as the riser because I'm like, well we should have never really dropped him, but we had to because of Jake Browning, because of the offense, because of how everything was going. But targets and receptions have increased each of the last three weeks. Quarterback change continued to, to help that, that rise continue to go. Flacco was just constantly looking for him. Like there was, they had these rhythm on these sideline routes where Flacco knew how much time he needed to just simply one step drop on a shotgun gun snap and release the ball where Jamar Chase could beat his defender to the sideline every single time he was floating him in there. It was just easy. It was, it was pitch and catch for these guys and like you can see what it's like to have a good veteran out there. He didn't have to run around, didn't have to do anything crazy. Just made it really simple for them. Next three secondaries are very, very, very beatable. Sorry Dave. Pittsburgh, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Jamar Chase, like I think he is back to just being a top three top five fantasy wide receiver every single week. And the Bengals offense, not horrible despite who I'm going to list as my follower in a sec.
- [70:59]
B
Yeah, I never panic panicked on Jamar Chase. Like I bumped down to wide receiver 4 in my rest of season rankings. Now he's back up to wide receiver 3 because of the Puka Nukua injury. But yeah, like he's just the best guy in football. Like I don't think any other receiver would be doing what he's doing in these situations. So of course like right now in fantasy I prefer Jackson Smith, Najigba and Amanra Saint Brown because they're in great ecosystems and they're getting the target volume and they have good quarterbacks. But like what Jamar Chase is doing like two touchdowns the week before too with Jake Browning and then like the, the touchdown he had yesterday, like he was getting mauled.
- [71:33]
A
I was just about to say, did you see his touchdown? Gosh, it was one of the best catches I've ever seen. It didn't look pretty much one of.
- [71:38]
B
The league's best defensive backs too. Like it does not matter. He is so good.
- [71:44]
A
Just insane. Just absolutely insane. Like it wasn't the pretty like Odell Beckham one handed crazy body control catch, but it was still was incredible body control and to catch that while getting hit While getting mauled by like two different. It was just nuts, man. It was absolutely nuts. Who are your risers and followers in this game?
- [72:03]
B
Riser is going to be Matthew Olden. You know, we saw a career high expect him got over 100 yards scrimmage like to see that. Not, not a ton of usage, five targets, two carries, but treading up in the right direction and, and this is just one of those where nobody else has really stepped up. Like Dobbs is going to continue doing what he is going to do. He's going to lead the team in targets and it's not going to be pretty and he'll score a touchdown.
- [72:23]
A
I firmly believe that Romeo Dobbs leads the team in targets because his guardian cap is easier to see when he's on the field. Like I firmly believe this.
- [72:30]
B
I think that might have something to do with it. But you know, he's just, he, he's good at the dirty work too. He's kind of like their new almazard. You know, he's a good blocker. He always has that feel for where the chains are going to be. But we know that he doesn't have explosives. Like you're not throwing a slant to Romeo Dobbs and expecting him to house it. You can get that sort of upside from Matthew golden and it was some fun creative usage where they were trying to get him out in space. So Matthew golden definitely trending up after the bye week. As you had talked about before the bye week. I think we saw that come out with like, you know, more intentional usage for Golden. I do wonder though, is like Christian Watson way ahead of schedule. He's already back at practice after that week. 18 ACL tear. I do wonder if that could help or hurt. We'll kind of, kind of see how that works out. But, but Matthew Golden's my riser and then my follower. Same as you. Chase Brown, dude. I, I, I fear that he cooked. Yes, it's over.
- [73:19]
A
Like it's never been more over.
- [73:20]
B
You know, it's kind of funny too. We, we, we do our, our magazine that, that we did this year and anybody who knows how a magazine works, like, you know, we don't just hit print and it's done. Like we have to like send this to the editors and then it has to get printed and then it needs to get mailed out and all that. And from the time that we sent it to the editor until it shipped, I had done a complete 180 on Chase Brown. So like I have this big section in the magazine about fading Chase Brown. And then I kind of like warmed up to Chase Brown before kickoff and now I kind of wish I just stuck with my guns about him being an undersized day three pick who was just kind of a product of a good offense. Because when this offense isn't firing on every cylinder, Chase Brown, man, he just does not look good. Now you've got Samaj P. Ryan pushing for a split backfield field.
- [74:03]
A
Yeah, I mean, I, I do think, like, obviously context continues to be key here, right? Like, if Joe Burrow is starting for this team, does it look different on a weekly basis? Right. Like it's, I think a lot of people are going to hold on to this as the year goes on. And yes, Chase Brown is my faller as well. And like, for, for very objective reasons, the role continues to decrease. 11 opportunities this past week, lowest of the season. Samaj P. Ryan is taking way too many of the passing down snake snaps. Thought that Joe, I mean, Joe Flacco still may end up targeting the running backs more, you know, because that's what he's been doing throughout his career. But those targets may be going to Samaj P. Ryan, who's getting out there on passing downs. Like, it's just, it's not pretty for Chase Brown. And this was a game where he got the two point conversion and something. Okay. You know, he was actually running better too. Like, he actually had a nice yard per carry average as the, the first half of the game was going and he started out running well. And they just totally abandoned running with Chase Brown. They got behind, they needed more Samaj P. Ryan out there pass blocking and they just kept spamming the ball to Jamar Chase. And granted that's what you should do as an offense. I just, I don't know. There's going to be many games here where you can say, you know what, we just, we gotta get this ball to Chase Brown more. And I know, I talked last week about how the schedule will open up. The Bengals have faced one of the absolute toughest defensive schedules for, for any team so far in the NFL. The schedule will get easier, but if the workload doesn't get better, like I, I'm, I got nothing. I got nothing like Chase Brown. If he doesn't touch the ball, it doesn't matter what we think about the schedule or anything else.
- [75:34]
B
Yeah, and it's this weird spot too. Or like I have some Chase Brown chairs that I want to trade away and nobody wants them. And then in other leagues I'm like, well, let me see if I can, like, buy low on Chase Brown and nobody wants to sell him because they spent a second round pick on him. So he's just kind of this, like, dead asset in fantasy right now that, like, isn't getting moved at all. Like, nobody wants to buy, nobody wants to sell. It's just like, you know, taking your medicine and putting them in your flex spot and hoping that he can get more than four and a half points every week.
- [76:01]
A
That's depressing. All right, final game that we're recapping here and reacting to. Chiefs defeat the Lions, 30 to 17. Just gonna say it. Chiefs are back. Patrick Mahomes looks great. He's. He's a top quarterback in the NFL. Like, we already knew that. But he's back to being a top fantasy quarterback, second in the league in.
- [76:21]
B
Rushing behind only Justin Fields.
- [76:25]
A
What is going on? Like, it's. It's. It's insane, man. Like, he. He's playing. He's playing out of his mind, Honestly. It's funny. Like, I make the joke about how Jalen hurts. Like, looks calm while he's playing, and, like, when they're winning, it's good. When they're losing, it's annoying. Patrick Mahomes looks so calm back there. There was a specific moment where Aiden Hutchinson had the sack and Patrick Mahomes just kind of like, swiped him off, did a little spin around, turn, and he was ready to throw that ball before the wide receiver was ever even in the location. And he completes a pass to Marquis Brown. And it was just one of those moments where I just went, like, man, we already knew this, but Patrick Mahomes is just on another level of quarterback play. Man, it's insane.
- [77:04]
B
Yeah. I mean, to me, it's like watching prime Aaron Rodgers where it's just like, as a Bears fan, like, I was the only person I felt like who rooted for the Bears that didn't hate Aaron Rodgers. Like, all of my friends just despised him. And I'm like, how can you guys not not enjoy watching him play? Like, I don't even care if he beats us down. Like, we're watching things that no quarterback has ever done, and Mahomes just does that type of stuff on a weekly basis. That ties in with my riser, who is Rashi Rice, just because, like, we already had high expectations. Yeah, but now, like, you get to plug Rashi Rice into this Chiefs offense that is just firing right now. Like, Mahomes is just playing unconscious football. They're pushing the ball downfield. There's other weapons there that defenses have to account for. For, like, Rashi Rice. You know, we talked about him, like, coming back in, giving top 12, top 15 production that might undersell it. Like, if he looks like Rashi Rice of the second half of his rookie season, the Rashi Rice we saw last year before he got hurt. If there are no ailments coming back from that knee injury, like, I could easily see Rashi Rice, you know, a couple of weeks from now, us talking about him in the JSN Amanra Puka tier as like, one of the best wide receivers in fantasy football.
- [78:10]
A
All of those one in five fantasy teams that drafted Rashee Rice. Rice early. It's your moment to shine. We're here. We are so back. Like, I honestly don't even mean that facetiously. Like, I'm super excited for Rashi Rice. And if you. Even if your team is doing bad in fantasy, you have a legit shot to turn things around right here because the fantasy landscape is just nuts with how many injuries are going on right now. Yeah. Rashi Rice, I think, steps into a major role in a fantastic offense where Pat Mahomes is playing. Amazing. My. My riser from this, though, is a guy that did play Jameson Williams. He got utilized early in the game plan. We saw a really nice, just probably the hardest pass that Jared Goff has ever thrown in his career. Like, from an arm strength standpoint, just an absolute piss missile over the middle of Jameson Williams, who just pinballed into the end zone after that. But he was getting utilized early in the game plan. Most receptions of the season for him was six. And like, it just seemed like they really wanted to get him more involved to get this offense going. Now, granted, the Lions didn't win and the Lions offense didn't look great, but Jameson Williams does seem to be a bigger part of the game plan. So a potential shootout next week. Like we said with Tampa Bay, he's a riser for me in the rankings. Like, he goes back from being a guy that's like, maybe I'm flexing him. He's been down this year. It's a. I think you just have to start.
- [79:31]
B
Yeah. And I mean, that's always with Jameson Williams. Like, and I did it in a few leagues. Like, I drafted a lot of Jameson Williams and this was the week that I was like, you know what? I'm going to bench him. And 44 yards and a touchdown in the first drive. I was kicking myself three minutes into that game. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. And yeah, I think you just got to take the highs with the highs and the lows with the lows. But even this, like I do want to say like this was like the big breakout game for Jameson Williams. And even that like it felt like there was so much meat on the bone like said like 44 yards and a touchdown in the first drive. I was like, all right, cool, we're getting, gonna get that like 152 touchdown game. And it just didn't really happen. Like, you know, two more catches after that didn't score another touchdown. So good to see him a bigger part of the offense. But it felt like he was kind of getting those scripted plays early and then once they got out of the scripted plays and they had to start running the offense, then it started funneling through Amanra again like it normally does.
- [80:20]
A
Yeah, and Sam Laporta too has had a big, a big role increase this year where he's, he's been a heavy part of this offensive offense.
- [80:27]
B
The catch was sick. That was just like the one handed and then like two toes down. Like that's not something that a 6 foot 6, 260 pound guy should be able to do.
- [80:37]
A
The Lions, I mean I know they lost but like they, despite the offense maybe not being as good as last year, it doesn't really feel like they've missed too many beats here. Like they're still scoring, they're. I think they're harder to defend this year. I just don't think we're seeing as many of the big wow plays and like the, that all happened too later in the season when they're playing indoors. Jared Goff went on like a six game hot streak. Could still happen for the Lions. The season goes on here. The schedule does. They do get an interesting schedule here where it's Washington, Philly, the Giants, Green Bay. That's, that's. They're an okay. They're a good defense. I wouldn't say beatable but. And then Dallas Cowboys, yeah, they have a little stretch there where we might see some good Lions football.
- [81:17]
B
The weird thing that we've seen from the Lions backfield is that this is two games now that we just like haven't really seen. David Montgomery, which is weird because last year it was like.
- [81:26]
A
But he threw a touchdown pass. David.
- [81:28]
B
I mean that would have been sick if they counted that. That should have been like the, you know, we don't even care there was a penalty. Like that was cool enough that we're just going to let it slide. I think that that should have like counted for one of those.
- [81:36]
A
They're cool, man.
- [81:38]
B
It should have been. But it is kind of weird that like last year it didn't matter if they were winning, losing, close game, blowing it out. Like it was always just like a 50, 50 split with Gibson. Montgomery now in the Cleveland game and now just last night in this Kansas City game. We've seen two games that Montgomery has kind of been phased out of, which is a little bit peculiar to see after the usage we've seen over the last couple of seasons.
- [82:00]
A
Yeah, it was a better game against Cincy because they had the lead and they could just ice the game with running it. I don't know.
- [82:07]
B
Cleveland was the one that I was talking about where he had just.
- [82:09]
A
No, yeah, you said that. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, you said, you said that Kansas City and Cleveland were the bad games. I was saying that Cincy was the game where like we saw more of the worklo. But that's because they were trying to ice the game. Running Tampa Bay, I think it's another shootout there. I think Minnesota coming out of the buy, I don't necessarily think that's when they get ahead early and win. Like that can be a competitive game as well. Washington, like there does look like there's a whole lot going forward. Philly doesn't look like there's a whole lot going forward. For David Montgomery to be a guy that's going to be getting a ton of carries.
- [82:40]
B
The Cincinnati thing too, like, just to put a little bookmark in there, there. This is the type of stuff that like Dan Campbell does too, that like I didn't really think about going into the game, but like David Montgomery going back to his hometown and like playing in front of his sister after the accident that she suffered from. Like, that's the type of stuff that David or that, that Dan Campbell does better than any other coach. It's like David Montgomery played high school football as a quarterback in Cincinnati and then they allow him to take a snap as a quarterback at the goal line and throw a touchdown in Cincinnati. Like, like it's those little things that Dan Campbell does that make him such a cool coach. And why, like the players buy into what he's doing. So I think that's. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I think that's kind of why we saw that huge blow up spot against Cincinnati. Because I think Dan Campbell like really wanted to get Montgomery going in a homecoming game.
- [83:28]
A
So my faller from this game changed three times because I was writing it as the game was going on first it was Brashard 1, Speaker Smith, then it was Isaiah Pacheco, and then I finalized on Kareem Hunt. Pacheco got the most carries of the season that he's had so far. And like, it doesn't always look good, but he's starting to break more long runs of like 10 and 12 yards. Those splash plays where, I mean, you go back, Dave, the last four weeks, averaging four and a half yards per carry, five yards per carry, 5.1, 4.2. He's getting something going on the ground. It's not great for fantasy, but. But he's, I guess, the lead running back in this offense and they kind of did that again. Bashard Smith started to get more targets. Three receptions on four targets as the game went on. Kareem Hunt, aside from the one run towards the end of the game where I'm sure a lot of people saw it, where he trucked a guy like, he just didn't look very good. Five touches in this game, lowest of the season. But I think the most damning thing for all the running backs is they got inside the five yard line. The Chiefs did. And they didn't choose to punch it in like they chose to pass twice. I think overall, like the Chiefs backfield just continued to be followers, but it's kind of hard to throw Isaiah Pacheco into that when he's getting more touches. So for me, Kareem Hunt, like just, he went from being a guy like maybe you could desperation flex to. I, I don't even know if he's, you know, someone that you're. That's worth rostering, like if you can go and pick up someone. I'd rather have Bam Knight than Kareem Hunt. I'd rather have a lot of these other running backs than.
- [84:54]
B
Yeah, I mean, Kareem Hunt, definitely a follower for me. And it felt like it was definitely touchdowns that were kind of propping him up. Funny, they mentioned Bam Knight. I've got him exactly one spot ahead of Kareem Hunt, my rest of season rankings. But I also prefer Michael Carter, Commandee Vidal, Blake Oram, Kendry, Miller, Kenneth Gainwell. I mean, there's a lot of guys that I prefer to Kareem Hunt at this point. I think he's droppable in most leagues.
- [85:15]
A
Yeah, I mean, that's where I'm at. Who's your follower from this game?
- [85:18]
B
Taekwondo Thornton didn't see a single target he was dealing with. He was practicing in full during the week. So I, I don't know if it was like actually injured but he was on the injury report. But I think now that we're seeing Marquis Brown healthy, now that we've got Rashi Rice coming back as well, Taekwond Thornton has been a fun high ceiling flex play. Like we've been able to stream him for a handful of weeks and get some good production here and there. But I think that with Rashi Rice back in the mix and the emergence of Marquis Brown, that has come to an end.
- [85:49]
A
Yeah, I mean it's just we're going to see the Chiefs offense change even a little bit more as Rashi Rice comes back in. Like I think we're not going to see as much Travis Kelce, we're not going to be seeing as much juju Smith, Schuster, Marquis, Holly Brown. Like it's going to get consolidated down to Rice Worthy and who, whichever rotating other player in the round robin ends up getting some targets that game.
- [86:10]
B
Exactly.
- [86:11]
A
Yeah. All right, well this is a new format, new show, but we were able to go through all of the matchups from Thursday Night Football through Sunday Night Football. We're gonna be back again tomorrow with our Week 7 waiver wire pickups and hopefully this was something that you guys enjoyed. You were able to pick up a little bit from this. We talked about some waiver wire players that we're interested in and some schedules going forward, but let us know in the comments down below, either on YouTube or in an Apple podcast review. Spotify comments as well. Let us know what you think of this show show if this was helpful for you and we'll see you again tomorrow for the Waiver wire show. As always, I want to thank everybody for watching and listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave, we'll see you tomorrow. Adios.
- [87:06]
B
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